South Africa to Launch ‘Government of National Unity’ with Leading Opposition Party

South Africa’s new government is a “Government of National Unity” (GNU) between the formerly dominant African National Congress (ANC), the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

The new government is the result of a coalition agreement that was announced Friday, shortly before a deadline to cast votes in Parliament for the country’s president. Current President Cyril Ramaphosa will be returning to office.

The ANC fell from 57% in 2019 to just over 40% in the 2024 elections last month. The DA, with nearly 22% of the vote, was the second-largest party. The radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), formerly third-largest, fell to under 10%, while the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party of former President Jacob Zuma made its debut at nearly 15%.

With the ANC and EFF together at less than 50%, it was theoretically possible for the DA to form a government made up entirely of opposition parties. But the MK proved too radical, and Zuma’s leadership too erratic, in negotiations.

The business community, which has invested heavily in the ANC in the 30 years since the country’s first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, and which has also backed the market-friendly DA, pushed for a joint ANC-DA deal.

The IFP, with less than 4% of the vote, is only a small party, but its inclusion may help court support from the Zulu community, which is the single largest ethnic group in South Africa, though still a minority of the diverse population.

The DA will reportedly receive at least five Cabinet seats in the GNU. It will be a test for the DA, whose brand has been opposition to the ANC, and which stands to lose support if the GNU fails to address the country’s problems.

South Africa faces a collapse of public utilities, a shrinking economy, a rising crime wave, and continued emigration.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.